Battery and electric vehicle leader BYD (Build Your Dreams) announced the recent addition of two new North America transportation professionals, Randy Premo and Karl Wheeler, for its East Coast team.

Premo will serve as BYD’s Regional Sales Manager, Northeast, which includes Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. Wheeler, as BYD’s Regional Sales Manager, Mid-Atlantic, will cover Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, West Virginia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and the District of Columbia.

Prior to joining BYD, Premo served more than 25 years with the Capital District Transportation Authority (CDTA) in Albany, N.Y. He began as a cleaner and worked through the ranks to a mechanic, foreman, and trainer. Premo was promoted to Manager of Technical Training & Support, then to Superintendent of Garages and to his more recent post, Superintendent of Fleet Maintenance, where he oversaw off-property work, fleet maintenance, and warranties, and was involved in technical specs, bus-builds and vendor relations. He was also involved with quality assurance and quality control, workplace safety and supervisory and safety training, and Project Empire – New York States Transit Career Ladder Partnership, which is an innovative labor/management partnership focused on improving training for bus mechanics.

Wheeler brings more than 17 years of transit agency bus experience with the Maryland Transit Administration (MTA), beginning as a repairman in 2001 and rising through the ranks to serve as the manager of bus maintenance from 2011 to 2018. His responsibilities have included capital program planning and implementation, budget development, vehicle procurement, project management and controls, quality control, fleet vehicle advanced technologies and implementation, and cost containment/budget adherence. A proud second-generation mass transit worker, Wheeler’s father was a bus operator for more than three decades.

Wheeler was a key member of the team that introduced the MTA to hybrid electric bus propulsion and its environmental and cost benefits. During his tenure, more than 350 hybrid electric transit bus propulsion systems were introduced into revenue service.

Wheeler also managed four divisions, and four support shops with more than 100 employees and was responsible for the operation of buses, trains, locomotives, light rail vehicles, and community service vehicles. He played a key part in the procurement of new buses sales, as well as a significant role in advancing the state of good repair of MTA’s public transportation system including oversight of the preventive maintenance and quality of the 750-bus fleet, and facilities.

BYD has invested more than $250 million in the United States. The firm is the only electric vehicle manufacturer in the U.S. to have an all-union workforce, and an exceptionally diverse team of employees. BYD continues its expansion plans with the purchase of an additional 150 acres of land near its Lancaster plant; and is planning service/maintenance centers across the U.S.

Pioneering zero-emission technology, the international firm is helping to revolutionize transportation, leave a cleaner environment and bring back manufacturing to the U.S. Its model proves that going green can be good for the economy, good for workers and good for America.